Alex Salmond will have a special naval veteran guest with him at today’s naming ceremony of HMS Queen Elizabeth at Rosyth his father, Robert.
Mr Salmond Sr served in the Royal Navy during the Second World War.
As a Petty Officer he served on two aircraft carriers, and was responsible for repairing the radios on the planes.
He was on the fleet carrier HMS Indomitable when it was torpedoed supporting the invasion of Sicily in 1943.
On his 90th birthday in 2011 Mr Salmond Sr climbed the gantry to the controls of the big crane at Rosyth as work began on the new carrier.
The First Minister said: “Typically, he says the worst thing that happened to him was not getting torpedoed on the Indomitable but witnessing the loss of pilots on HMS Hunter when the Seafires came in too fast for the converted merchant ship.
“As far as I can make out the damage to the Indomitable almost certainly saved his life since the remaining crew were given mandatory screening on entry into the United States.
“When they detected TB on board the navy back-screened the previous ship’s complement, including father.
“He was pulled off a football field playing in a navy match in Belfast when his test came through as positive.
“So if it hadn’t been for a Junkers bomber putting a hole in his ship, father would have been dead and I wouldn’t have been born.
“He will love seeing the launch of the new carrier and will be interested in how it compares to HMS Indomitable.
“He has an album of pictures of Indomitable at Rosyth which the guys in Babcock gave him and swears blind you can see him on deck!”